The Grand Tour When it comes to tours, no one does it better than New Orleans

People who live in New Orleans know how to savor life. When mealtime arrives, they serve a feast. When someone dies, they honor the person’s memory with a jazz funeral and parade that can last hours, if not days.

“New Orleans is the last bohemian city,” says Wendell
Pierce, the native son who portrays trombone player Antoine Batiste
on “Tremé,” the popular HBO series by writer David
Simon. “It speaks to people and gives them a freeing of their
spirit. You can be yourself.”

To give you a sense of what that means to people in the Big Easy,
we chose four notable New Orleanians from the worlds of food, music
and drama, and talked with them about their lives, work and
feelings about the city. On the pages that follow, you can read
their stories, which we think add up to a delicious slice of what
life here is like.

“There’s something about New Orleans that’s got
that pop,” believes jazz trumpeter and vocalist James
Andrews. “It’s got that flavor. It’s a different
crowd, and most people down here have got soul.”